Asia Resource Minerals names new chairman, unveils board changes
Tuesday, December 24 2013 - 04:50 AM WIB
London-listed mining firm Asia Resources Mineral plc, formerly known as Bumi plc, named Chris Walton, former CFO of EasyJet plc, as its new Chairman as the company unveiled board changes.
The appointment of the new chairman comes as Samin Tan will leave the post once the expected separation of the Indonesia-focused mining company from the Indonesian Bakrie family takes place. Bakrie and Nath Rothschild, co-founded Bumi in 2010, but relations between the two have soured since then, leading to the split.
?Chris Walton will join the board on 1 January 2014 as an independent non-executive director and will become Chairman of the board of the company on completion of the separation transaction, which the company expects to take place by the end of January 2014. Following completion of the separation transaction Samin Tan will remain a non-executive director of the company,? Asia Resource Minerals said in a statement obtained Tuesday.
Chris currently serves as Chairman of Goldenport Holdings Inc and Lothian Buses plc. In addition he serves as Senior Independent Director and Audit Chairman of Rockhopper Exploration plc, and as Audit Chairman of the Kazakhstan State Railways (KTZ). He is also a non-executive director of the Institute of Directors and a non-executive member of the Audit and Risk Committee for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Prior to taking up his non-executive appointments, Chris served as Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer of EasyJet plc from 1999-2005. Prior to that, he had a varied career encompassing roles in the mining, logistics and airline industries.
Asia Resource Minerals said Nick Salmon will also join the board on 1 January 2014 as an independent non-executive director and on 1 February 2014 will become the Senior Independent Director of the company.
Nick is currently the Senior Independent Director of United Utilities Group plc, having held this position since 2007. He was Chief Executive of Cookson Group plc from 2004 to 2012 when he stepped down on completion of the group's successful demerger. Prior to this he was the Executive Vice President of Alstom SA, Chief Executive of Babcock International plc and held senior positions in the power station construction industry with GEC (UK) and CLP ( Hong Kong). Through his career, Nick has gained a wealth of international experience and held global responsibility for businesses across multiple jurisdictions.
Sir Julian Horn-Smith, the current Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director, has informed the board that he will be stepping down as non-executive director on 31 January 2014.
Steve Shapiro, an independent non-executive director, has also informed the board that he will not be standing for re-election at the next annual general meeting of the company.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak